1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatuses and methods for translation and, more particularly, to a translation apparatus and a translation method arranged to facilitate the operation of inputting speech and to obtain correct translation of an input speech by recognizing the input speech in a predetermined language, by outputting a sentence in the same language similar to the combination of one or more words constituting the speech and by outputting a translation of this sentence.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic translation apparatuses for translating documents in various fields have recently been developed. In this kind of apparatus, the structure of a sentence in a predetermined language is analyzed and a sentence in another language is formed according to the result of the analysis. Such a method, however, necessitates a large amount of arithmetic operation and also requires inputting the entire sentence in a predetermined language, which operation is troublesome for a user to perform if the sentence is long. Moreover, such a method does not ensure the desired translation accuracy. Ordinary users use translation apparatuses because they are not proficient in non-native languages, and it is difficult for such users to confirm whether translation is correctly made. Generally, apparatuses for such translation are large in size and not easy to carry.
Translation apparatuses reduced in size and simplified in construction to improve the portability (hereinafter referred to as portable translation apparatuses) have also been developed. Such portable translation apparatuses are designed so that, if a series of letters forming a word in a predetermined language is input by an input means, e.g., a keyboard, a translated word in a target language corresponding to the input word is output. That is, such portable translation apparatuses have a dictionary in which words in a predetermined language and words in another language are related so as to have a one-to-one correspondence with each other. For example, if a word " (dictionary)" (or " (dictionary) " or " (dictionary)") is input in the case of translation from Japanese into English, a corresponding translated word "dictionary" is searched out of the dictionary to be outputted.
In this kind of portable translation apparatuses, the probability of a mistranslation is low since words in a predetermined language are previously related to words in another language. Also, the input operation is easy to perform since only a word is input. However, a translation result obtained is only a word and this kind of apparatus is inconvenient with respect to a need for obtaining a sentence as a translation result.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 229473/1987, for example, discloses a translation apparatus in which single-word speech input in a predetermined language is recognized and a sentence in another language corresponding to a combination of words obtained as a result of the speech recognition is output. This translation apparatus separately receives a speech input which may be a word and therefore enables a user to easily input words and can obtain a translation result in the form of a sentence. It therefore enables even a user who is not proficient in foreign languages to easily communicate with foreigners in a tour abroad, for example.
This type of translation apparatus is designed so that, each time single-word speech is input, a corresponding recognition result is output in the same language as that of the input word to enable a user to confirm whether the output result is correct. After the accuracy of all the voice recognition results of the input words have been confirmed, the combination of words is translated. In this process, the user cannot confirm whether a sentence obtained as a translation result is correct.
That is, even if all the recognition results of input word voice are correct, the translation result corresponding to the combination of the recognition results is not always correct. Thus, the user who is not proficient in the translation target language cannot be sure of the correctness of the translation result.